It Begins...
Disclaimer - I don't own Thundercats...nuff said
It Begins...
Part 1: The Attack
by AJAngelique
Lion-O and Snarf walked carefully across the grass thick field that was heavy with a mixture of the morning's dew and the rains that had fallen in the area for the pass couple of days.
"Brrrr, I'm really glad that the rain's finally stop," Snarf said as he walked beside the lord of the Thundercats.
"Me too, I was really starting to feel cooped up in the Lair yesterday," Lion-O as he glanced down at a piece of paper in his hand.
"What are we doing here Lion-O?" Snarf asked as he noticed how the forest was beginning to get thicker with trees and bushes as something in the air was subtlety changing as they went further into the woods.
"Just a little exploration Snarf," Lion-O said as he made some notes on the paper.
"Why couldn't we just ask someone about these woods, they're starting to give me the creeps," Snarf said.
"We have, nobody really knows a lot about these woods except for this legend about this mansion in the middle of the woods where two girls live," Lion-O.
"Brrrr, if it's a really old legend I doubt those girls are still there," Snarf said.
"I know, but still...Snarf?" Lion-O started to say but stopped and looked back when he noticed that Snarf had stopped in his own tracks and was sitting up as he was listening to something obviously off in the distance off to his left.
"What is it Snarf?" Lion-O asked.
"It sounds like, there's someone else in the wood...and they're fighting someone," Snarf said.
"Are they in trouble?" Lion-O asked and he was quickly answered by the sound of a gun going off followed by a loud cry.
"Come on Snarf!" Lion-O shouted and ran off in the direction of the noised with Snarf hot on his heels. It didn't take the two long to make their way through the thicket and out into a clearing where Monkian, Slythe and Jackelman were in a semi-circle around a what looked like a girl laying on her side and looking up at the Mutants rather angrily while clutching her right leg with her right hand.
"Mutants!" Snarf shouted surprised as he reared back a bit. Lion-O quickly pulled out his sword as the Mutants spun around to face Lion-O, very surprised to see him.
"What is he doing here?" Jackelman demanded, gesturing towards a confused Lion-O.
"Yes, you said no one would come in these woods," Monkian said, sneering at Slythe who was just as disgusted at the situation.
"It's just one Thundercat, we can take him," Slythe said as he got ready to attack the young lord. Lion-O gripped his sword and the Mutants heard two growls, one from the sword in front of them and one from behind…needless to say, both growls were unnerving. Slythe let out a growl of annoyance as he rushed forward and was soon followed by the other two mutants.
"Ho!" Lion-O cried, evoking the power of the Sword of Omens but everyone was surprised to find that its power had somehow increased and the field was soon filled with light.
"Where did all that power come from?" Jackelman demanded as he and the other mutants did their best to shield their eyes from the light.
"I don't know," Monkian said.
"Where ever it came from, its too powerful for us to handle. We should retreat," Slythe said, already slinking away from Lion-O. Jackelman and Monkian were quick to follow and the trio ran off as the light began to fade. Once the light was back to normal, the Mutants were gone.
"Wow Lion-O, I never knew that the sword had such power," Snarf said.
"Neither did I Snarf," Lion-O said as he looked at the Sword of Omens curiously.
"I guess I should have warned you about that," came a female voice and the two looked up at the girl, remembering the reason why they were in that field to begin with, "there's an high concentration of magic in these woods and it has a tendency to amplify talismans," the girl said as the guys walked up to her.
"I see, can I help you up?" Lion-O asked as he reached out a hand to her. The girl started to say something when something flew out of the pocket of her jacket and buzzed around Lion-O like a angry firefly.
"Back! Don't touch her!" the ball of light shouted of angrily, surprising both Thundercats.
"By Jaga," Lion-O said as he took a couple steps take and swatted at the small ball of hot white light buzzing around his face.
:"Aurora, down girl," the girl said in her angry mother voice. The ball of light stopped instantly and drifted away from Lion-O a couple of inches as the light faded to reveal a five 21cm tall little girl with golden sunshine hair, sky blue eyes, lightly tanned skin and rainbow iridescent dragonfly wings wearing a white toga made of a very light material. Though she wasn't buzzing around Lion-0 anymore, she gave him a murderous look.
"What is that…she…?" Lion-O stumbled, not sure to make of he was seeing.
"Humph! I'm faerie idiot," Aurora said.
"Aurora," the girl scolded and the faerie shrank a bit. The girl just sighed heavily and carefully stood up on her own.
"Please forgive her, she doesn't trust strangers," the girl said as she stood there.
"I see," Lion-O said as he looked at Aurora who simply stuck her tongue out at Lion-O.
"Why did the mutants attack you?" Snarf piped in.
"Because, I live here," the girl said.
"You live here?" Lion-O asked.
"Well, not here here. I live in the middle of the woods and…" the girl started as she gestured first at the field and then back to the other side of the field.
"You mean in the mansion?" Snarf asked.
"Yeah," the girl.
"You can't be one of the people we heard about," Lion-O said as he looked the girl over in disbelief.
"Why? Because she looks too young?" Aurora demanded.
"Well…" Lion-O started.
"That's ok, I get that a lot," the girl said.
"Is your leg ok?" Snarf asked as he noticed a slight blood stain and what looks like a burnt hole from one of the mutants' guns.
"This? Yeah, it's just flesh wound," the girl said with a grin that looked a little forced that didn't convince either the guys or Aurora.
"What?" the girl asked. The others looked away and had these guilty looks on their faces.
"Et tu Aurora?" the girl asked as she the threw the faerie a glare.
"Well…I…" Aurora said nervously as she shrank away a bit.
"By the way," Lion-O said, interrupting the scowl moment long enough for the girls to look up at him, "What is your name?"
The girl smiled as she shifted her left leg behind her right leg and slowly moved to a elegant bow, "Angela Cr…"Angela started but was cut off by a sharp pain from her injured leg. She gasped loudly and winced as she lost her balance and made friends with the earth once again.
"Angela!" Aurora shouted as she rushed over to the girl and hovered by her head.
"Are you alright?" Lion-O asked as he a Snarf hurried to Angela's side.
"Ok, maybe not so fine as I thought," Angela said as she clutched her leg.
"It's broken! Those stupid tings shot her and now she's going to die. Quick, suck out the poison!" Aurora shouted and everyone just looked at her like she were a talking rainbow colored zebra.
"What?!" Aurora demanded.
"Aurora, guns aren't snakes," Angela said.
"Oh," Aurora said sheepishly.
"But Angela is injured and we need to get her help," Snarf said.
"Yes, we'll take her back to the mansion and…" Aurora started.
"And it'll take too long and things will get worse," Angela cut in.
"But…"Aurora started.
"No buts, these woods are deeper than they look and remember how long it took us just to get to this field?" Angela said. Aurora opened and closed her mouth a couple times like a fish gasping for water before she finally scowled at Angela.
"Then we have to take her to the Lair," Snarf said and Lion -O nodded.
"Here Angela, let me help you," Lion-O said.
"Ok," Angela said, expecting to stand up and lean on the young lord, but surprised when he actually scooped her up in his arms.
"What are you doing?" Angela asked.
"Carrying you," Lion-O said and began the walk back to Cat's Lair.
"Oh," Angela said with a light blush on her face. Aurora giggled at this but quickly went silent as Angela threw her a glare and Aurora floated back to hang out with Snarf for the rest of the walk.
Later back at the Lair, Angela had been taken directly to sick bay. Her leg was diagnosed, cleaned and bandaged as Angela just sat quietly and watched and Aurora watched impatiently from Aurora's left shoulder. But the small faerie was tapping her foot against Angela's shoulder and after awhile, it was beginning to get on the blonde girl's nerves.
"Aurora," Angela finally said as her Tygra started to wrap her leg.
"Yes?" Aurora asked.
"Please, stop fidgeting," Angela asked. Aurora frowned and did her best to sit as still as possible as Tygra finished wrapping Angela's leg.
"There, that should do it," Tygra said as Angela looked down at the wrapped calf.
"Thank you," Angela said and moved to get off the table.
"Wait…"Tygra started as Angela got off the table and stood firmly on the floor and looked at him with a confused look on her face.
"What?" she asked.
"You…" Tygra started to scold her but noticed something was off and looked her over for a moment, "did you get taller?"
"No, just levitating," Angela said as she pointed down at her feet and Tygra looked down to see that she was hovering at least an inch over the floor.
"Hey Tygra, how's…" Cheetara started as she walked into the sick bay but stopped when she saw Angela, "…did you get taller?" Aurora giggled as Angela rolled her eyes.
"No, she's levitating," Tygra said as he crossed his arms.
"Levitating? Is she…?" Cheetara started.
"So! You wanted to see someone about something?" Angela interrupted suddenly, which made the two Thundercats exchange looks and Angela pouted slightly like a lost little child.
"Yes, everyone is waiting for you two in the Council Chamber," Cheetara said.
"I guess it's time for your press conference," Aurora said as she looked up at Angela as she laid face down on the girl's shoulder but rested her head on her crossed arms.
"Shush," Angela said to the faerie as she and Tygra followed Cheetara to the Council Chamber. Needless to say, everyone looked up when they entered the room and Angela let out a heavy sigh.
"No, I didn't grow," she said as she floated/walked into the room and sat down in the nearest empty seat as everyone just looked at her confused.
"I can levitate, "Angela hastily said hastily as she looked away from everyone very embarrassed as Cheetara and Tygra sat down.
"Angela," Lion-O said, bringing her attention back to the group, "why did the mutants attack you?"
"Oh for many reasons, but I guess mainly for this," Angela said as she pulled up her shoulder bag and sat it on the table as everyone starred at it.
"What? It's not a bomb," Angela said as she opened the bag and pulled first one handful of rainbow colored CD cases that each held a single CD and placed it on the table to her left as she reached into the bag for another handful. Panthro picked up a couple of the cases an noticed that the disc inside was clear except for a slight iridescent tint.
"What are these things?" Panthro asked as he moved the case around in the light to examine it better as the rests of the discs were passed around the table.
"Crystal Data Discs from the Crystal Mansion. Each disc holds over 100 years worth of information or a century's worth of data on a single topic," Angela said and as if the discs were as ordinary as air while she shoved her whole arm into her bag to feel around for any cases that she might have missed. Angela noticed that the room got really quiet all of a sudden and looked up to see everyone was starring at her.
"What?" Angela asked as everyone looked away and Aurora simply groaned under her breath as Angela pulled her arm of the bag, dumped the bag upside down and shook it a couple times over the table.
"You've got to be kidding," Wiley Kit said.
"These discs can't really hold that much information," Wiley Kat said.
"Hmmmm," Angela said as she picked up a random case, opened it and pulled out the disc inside. The Thundercats watched as Angela put down the case and held the disc in between her cupped hands. She closed her eyes and titled her head down towards her hands as a small ball of light formed in the hole of the disc. The others watched as the light grew to encase the entire disc and Angela moved her hands back to hold the light itself as the disc began to spin and suddenly the air itself was full of information of a civilization long pass from 3rd Earth.
The Thundercats looked around in shock and awe at all the text, photos, movies and audio. This lasted for a couple of minutes before Angela finally let out a sigh and all the information faded back into the disc and the disc fell onto the table with a light clatter as everyone looked at Angela again.
"Now that I have you attention, my name is Angela Cross. I live in the Crystal Mansion hidden deep within the Mystic woods. When my Earth's time came to an end, the powers that be took me to the beginning of it all, prolonged my life and designated me this planet's historian. I have been keeping the history of this planet ever since it first came into being," Angela said as she pulled out a seemingly random disc and brought it to life to show all the details of the mansion.
"Is that the Crystal Mansion?" Wiley Kit asked.
"Yes, it is. In addition to the four floors above grounds, there are several sublevels. All the information I have gather over time is stored in a computer room in the very middle of the house. But, while the first sublevel is kept open for household needs, the other three are artifact and archives room," Angela said as she gestured as part of the map, "the second and third level are mainly museums and libraries. But the fourth and final level is security access only. This area contains things that are forbidden to ever see the light of day again."
"Why don't you just destroy them?" Wiley Kat asked. Angela opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by an explosion that shook the room and the alarms went crazy.
TBC
Part 2: Healing